ISLAMABAD — Enraged by a NATO cross-border air attack that killed 24 soldiers, Pakistan is considering withdrawing its support for the U.S.-led war on terror if its sovereignty is violated again, the foreign minister suggested in comments published on Thursday.

The South Asian nation has already shown its anger over the weekend strike by pulling out of an international conference in Germany next week on Afghanistan. It stood by that decision on Wednesday, depriving the talks of a central player in efforts to bring peace to its neighbor.

"Enough is enough. The government will not tolerate any incident of spilling even a single drop of any civilian or soldier's blood," The News newspaper quoted Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar as telling a Senate committee on foreign affairs.

"Pakistan's role in the war on terror must not be overlooked," Khar said, suggesting Pakistan could end its support for the U.S. war on militancy. Despite opposition at home, Islamabad backed Washington after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

'Sacrifices'
Pakistan says it has paid the highest price of any country engaged in the war on militancy. Thousands of soldiers and police have been killed.

"The sacrifices rendered by Pakistan in the war on terror are more than any other country," Khar was quoted as saying. "But that does not mean we will compromise on our sovereignty."

Pakistan military sources also said it had cancelled a visit by a 15-member delegation, led by the Director General of the Joint Staff, Lieutenant-General Mohammad Asif, to the United States that was to have taken place this week.

NATO helicopters and fighter jets attacked two military border posts in northwest Pakistan on Saturday in the worst incident of its kind since 2001.

Pakistani and American officials have offered different accounts of the airstrike. But it seems clear that a breakdown in communication contributed to the tragedy.

According to U.S. military records described to The Associated Press, the incident occurred when a joint U.S. and Afghan patrol requested backup after being hit by mortar and small arms fire by Taliban militants. Before responding, the joint U.S.-Afghan patrol first checked with the Pakistani army, which reported it had no troops in the area, the military account said.

Pakistani officials have refuted this claim and said U.S. forces must have known they were attacking Pakistani soldiers because the posts were clearly marked on maps given to NATO and the two sides were in contact immediately before and during the airstrikes.

Pakistani military sources said the attack came in two waves.

"The attack began at around 12:05 a.m. and lasted for about 30 minutes, when the contacts were made and it was discontinued," one source told Reuters.

The source said NATO helicopter gunships and jet fighters came back after 35 minutes. The Pakistanis returned fire in a battle that lasted for another 45 minutes.

The two posts in question — Volcano and Boulder — are perched about 8,000 feet high on a ridgeline near the Afghan border. They are among about 28 such posts in Mohmand Agency set up to prevent cross-border movements by Taliban militants, another military source said.

The source said that there were no militants in the area, however, because they had been flushed out by a Pakistani military operation conducted over the year.

'Not a deliberate attack'
The top U.S. military officer denied allegations by a senior Pakistani army official that the NATO attack was a deliberate act of aggression.

General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the U.S. military's Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Reuters in an interview: "The one thing I will say publicly and categorically is that this was not a deliberate attack.

The army, which has ruled Pakistan for more than half of its history and sets security and foreign policy, faced strong criticism from both the Pakistani public and the United States after Osama bin Laden was killed in a secret raid by U.S. special forces in May.

The al-Qaida leader had apparently been living in a Pakistani garrison town for years.

Pakistanis criticized the military for failing to protect their sovereignty and U.S. officials wondered whether some members of military intelligence had sheltered him. Pakistan's government and military said they had no idea bin Laden was in the country.

The army seems to have regained its confidence and won the support of the public and the government in a country where anti-American sentiment often runs high.

Protests have taken place in several cities every day since the NATO strike along the poorly-defined border, where militants often plan and stage attacks.

Meanwhile, Pakistan resumed some cooperation with U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan to prevent another cross-border incident from escalating, a spokesman said Wednesday.

NATO said Islamabad communicated with the alliance to prevent an exchange of fire over the border late Tuesday from turning into another international incident.

U.S. forces received mortar and recoilless rifle fire from an area just inside the Pakistan border, said U.S. spokesman Navy Lt. Cmdr. Brian Badura. U.S. forces returned fire in self-defense while confirming with the Pakistani military that it wasn't involved. No damage or casualties were reported by the U.S. or Pakistan, he said.

German Brig. Gen. Carsten Jacobson, a NATO spokesman in Kabul, expressed hope that Pakistan's cooperation in resolving the incident in eastern Afghanistan's Paktia province signaled the two sides could recover from the recent tragedy.

The Pakistani military did not immediately respond to request for comment on the latest incident.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

Video: US-Pakistan relations strained following airstrike

Transcript of: US-Pakistan relations strained following airstrike

BRIAN WILLIAMS, anchor:Now we turn overseas to
Pakistan
and that deadly attack over the weekend by
US troops
that killed at least two dozen members of the
Pakistani military
. And now it's created a huge mess in the US relationship with
Pakistan
, a nuclear nation, don't forget, that's key to the US
war effort
in
Afghanistan
. By the way, a war on which we spend roughly $2 billion a week. There are new details tonight, still a lot of questions about what went wrong. Our own
Jim Miklaszewski
on duty at the
Pentagon
tonight. Hey,
Jim
, good evening.

JIM MIKLASZEWSKI reporting:Good evening,
Brian
. US officials tell
NBC News
that before launching those deadly airstrikes, American commanders got permission from the
Pakistani military
to go ahead with the attack. But now the
US military
is looking at the possibility that
American forces
may have hit the wrong targets.

Offscreen Voice:

MIKLASZEWSKI:Pakistan
's
military
and government leadership gathered for a mass funeral in
Islamabad
to mourn the deaths of the 25
Pakistan
soldiers killed in the US airstrikes, while violent anti-US demonstrations exploded across
Pakistan
.
The White House
tried desperately today to ease still another round of growing tensions between the US and
Pakistan
.

Mr. JAY CARNEY (White House Press Secretary):The president's reaction is all of our reaction, which is that the events that took those lives -- the event, rather, was a tragedy.

MIKLASZEWSKI:The
Pakistanis
claim the attack was unprovoked, but
US military
officials insist the Americans were acting in self-defense. They claim that early Saturday, rockets were fired from
Pakistan
at
American
and
Afghan forces
across the border in
Afghanistan
. The Americans called for air cover and
US helicopter
gunships attacked two separate outposts, killing the 24 Pakistani troops.
Pakistan
quickly retaliated, cargo trucks stacked up at the
Afghanistan
border today after
Pakistan
shut down the critical
supply line
that provides
American forces
with 40 percent of what they need to fight the war.

General BARRY McCAFFREY, Retired (NBC News Military Analyst):This has put us in one step short of a strategic disaster. We simply can't operate without at least 50 percent of our supplies that come through
Pakistan
on the ground and are now held up.

MIKLASZEWSKI:It's just the latest in a series of clashes between the US and
Pakistan
, including the US raid that killed
Osama bin Laden
that potentially threatened the entire US
war effort
in
Afghanistan
.
Joint Chiefs Chairman General Martin Dempsey
knows exactly what's at stake.

General MARTIN DEMPSEY:So is it serious? Absolutely. Are we taking it seriously? I can promise you that. I don't know how it'll turn out.

MIKLASZEWSKI:The US
and
NATO
has launched two separate investigations into this attack. And while officials here at the
Pentagon
are confident that
Pakistan
will eventually reopen those vital US supply lines, they fear it will

come at a heavy price. Brian:Jim Miklaszewski
. Great work at the
Pentagon
tonight on a big story for this country.

People protest against U.S. drone attacks in Karachi, on Oct. 23, the same day Pakistan's President Nawaz Sharif is visiting U.S. President Barack Obama at the White House in Washington, D.C.. The White House defended the use of drones against terrorist suspects and dismissed claims by human rights groups that it had violated international law.
(Shahzaib Akber / EPA)
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A policeman photographs the wreckage of a train after a bomb destroyed it in Naseerabad district, about 150 miles southeast of Quetta, on Oct. 21. A bomb hit a passenger train in Pakistan's restive southwest, killing at least six people and wounding more than 17 others.
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Firefighters try to put out a fire that erupted at a fruit market in Karachi, Oct. 16. More than 200 shops were gutted and a large product stock was destroyed.
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Afghan men prepare to slaughter a buffalo during the annual festival of Eid al-Adha, or the Festival of Sacrifice, at Kacha Garhi Afghan refugee camp, located in the outskirts of Peshawar, Oct. 15. Muslims around the world celebrate Eid al-Adha to mark the end of the haj pilgrimage by slaughtering sheep, goats, camels and cows to commemorate Prophet Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son, Ismail, on God's command.
(Fayaz Aziz / Reuters)
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Pakistani police officers inspect the site of a deadly explosion in a busy market in Lahore, Oct. 10. A bomb went off outside a police station, killing at least six people and wounding many more.
(K.M. Chaudary / AP)
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Pakistani schoolboys look out the window of their classroom at other students chanting prayers to commemorate the anniversary of Malala's shooting by Taliban, at a school in Rawalpindi, Oct. 9. One year after a Taliban bullet tried to silence Malala Yousufzai's demand for education, she has published a book and was widely thought to be a top contender for the Nobel Peace Prize. But the militants threaten to kill her should she dare return home from Britain, and the principal at her old school says that as Malala's fame has grown, so has fear in her classrooms.
(Muhammed Muheisen / AP)
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Activists of All Pakistan Muslim League celebrate the bail of former military ruler Pervez Musharraf over the death of a rebel leader, in Islamabad, Oct. 9. Pakistan's top court on granted bail to Musharraf over the death of a rebel leader, but the following day, he was arrested over his role in the seige of the Red Mosque in 2007, which left a cleric and more than 100 others dead.
(Farooq Naeem / AFP - Getty Images)
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An Afghan refugee boy wearing an empty bucket on his head, waits his turn to fetch water from a hand pump, in a poor neighborhood on the outskirts of Islamabad, Oct. 7. Pakistan hosts over 1.6 million registered Afghans, the largest and most protracted refugee population in the world, with thousands still living without electricity, running water and other basic services, according to the U.N. refugee agency.
(Muhammed Muheisen / AP)
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Models get their hair done and have make-up applied before they walk the catwalk on the first day the Islamabad fashion week Oct. 5.
(Zohra Bensemra / Reuters)
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Technicians from Pakistan's top bomb disposal unit prepare their equipment during a bomb search operation in Peshawar, Oct. 2. Twelve years into the war on militancy, Pakistan's police are chronically under-funded. This year's federal budget gave the military about $6 billion and the police $686 million, a lopsided allocation mirrored by the disbursement of foreign aid.
(Zohra Bensemra / Reuters)
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Relatives and residents carry the coffins of bomb victims during a funeral procession in Shabqader on Sept. 29. A car bomb killed at least 39 people in Peshawar, the third deadly strike to hit the city in a week.
(A. Majeed / AFP - Getty Images)
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Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, left, shakes hands with his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh during their first official meeting on the sidelines of the 68th Session of the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 29, at the New York Palace Hotel in Manhattan. The two leaders agreed to dial back tensions in the disputed territory of Kasmir where cross-border artillery exchanges in the past two months has lead to at least eight soldiers deaths on both sides. The territory has triggered three wars between the two countries since 1947,
(Stan Honda / AFP - Getty Images)
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Men rush away from the site of a blast following an explosion in Peshawar, Sept. 29. A car bomb went off on a crowded street in northwestern Pakistan killing scores of people in the third blast to hit the troubled city of Peshawar in a week.
(Mohammad Sajjad / AP)
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People carry a victim from the scene of a bomb blast in Peshawar, Sept. 29. Twin blasts including one car bomb killed at least 33 people at a market near a police station, including six children and two women. More than 70 people were injured in the explosion.
(Arshad Arbab / EPA)
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A Pakistani man carrying a child rushes away from the site of a blast shortly after a car exploded in Peshawar, Sept. 29.
(Mohammad Sajjad / AP)
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A plainclothes official collects evidence from the wreckage of a bus destroyed by a bomb blast, in Peshawar, Sept. 27. The bomb exploded in the back of a bus carrying government employees killing and wounding dozens of people.
(Mohammad Sajjad / AP)
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Earthquake survivors collect their belongings fromn amongst the rubble of their collapsed mud houses in the earthquake-devastated district of Awaran on Sept. 25. Desperate villagers in southwest Pakistan clawed through the wreckage of their ruined homes , a day after a huge earthquake struck, killing more than 300 people and creating a new island off the coast.
(Banaras Khan / AFP - Getty Images)
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People walk on an island that appeared off the coastline of Gwadar on Sept. 25, following an earthquake the day before. The National Institute of Oceanography has sent a team to survey the island, which stands about 60-feet high.
(Ho / AFP - Getty Images)
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Women in Islamabad hold a placard during a protest near the Parliament to condemn a suicide attack on a church in Peshawar, Sept. 23. Angry Pakistani Christians denounced the deadliest attack ever in this country against members of their faith. A pair of suicide bombers blew themselves up amid hundreds of worshippers outside a historic church in northwestern Pakistan.
(B.K. Bangash / AP)
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A couple help an injured victim of a suicide attack at a church in Peshawar, Sept. 22. A suicide bomb attack on the historic church in northwestern Pakistan killed scores of people in one of the worst assaults on the country’s Christian minority in years.
(Mohammad Sajjad / AP)
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Pakistani police inspector Shazadi Gillani removes her shoes at her home in Abbottabad, Sept. 18. When Gillani, the highest ranking female police officer in Pakistan's most conservative province, wanted to join the force she had to defy her father, forego marriage and pay for her own basic training.
(Zohra Bensemra / Reuters)
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Children in Islamabad sit along the roadside during a protest against the rape of a five-year-old girl in Lahore, Sept. 17. The girl was found abandoned outside the Sir Ganga Ram hospital in Lahore on Sept. 13 and was hospitalized.
(Mian Khursheed / Reuters)
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An Afghan refugee, her burka billowing, holds her daughter as she walks home through an alley of a poor neighborhood on the outskirts of Islamabad, Sept. 16. Pakistan hosts over 1.6 million registered Afghans, the largest and most protracted refugee population in the world, with thousands living without electricity, running water and other basic services, according to the U.N. refugee agency.
(Muhammed Muheisen / AP)
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Flames rise after unknown gunmen opened fire at tanker trucks carrying oil for NATO forces in Afghanistan, in Hub, Pakistan, Sept. 15. Over the last years, tankers carrying oil for NATO troops have been regularly targeted by Islamic militants on both sides of the border. U.S. and NATO forces in landlocked Afghanistan get around 75 per cent of their food and military supplies through Pakistan.
(EPA)
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Pakistani people walk through a storm near the Ravi river in Lahore on Sept. 15. Heavy rains and hailstorms lashed the capital, disrupting traffic and swamping the city.
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Pakistani Shiite Muslims march in a protest rally in Karachi on Sept. 7, against possible U.S. strikes against Syria.
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Pakistani Air Force cadets parade in front of the tomb of Pakistan's founder, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, in Karachi on Defense Day, Sept. 6. Pakistan observes Defense Day to pay homage to martyrs and to highlight the sacrifices made for the protection of Pakistan, during the war of September 1965 with India.
(Rehan Khan / EPA)
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A Pakistani security official displays an unexploded bomb near the site of a roadside bomb explosion in Karachi on Aug. 22. A roadside bomb killed a man and wounded at least 16 people, including soldiers and civilians in Pakistan's violence-plagued port city of Karachi. The bomb targeted troops returning to camp by truck after carrying out security duties for by-elections in the city.
(Asif Hassan / AFP - Getty Images)
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Family members and relatives mourn a victim of toxic homemade liquor in Karachi, Aug. 11. Police officer Mohammad Sarwar said that a dozen people from Christian-dominated slums in the city, Pakistan's largest, were hospitalized after drinking toxic liquor.
(Fareed Khan / AP)
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Pakistani security personnel stand alert outside the U.S. consulate in Lahore on Aug. 9. The United States has evacuated all non-emergency staff from its consulate in the Pakistani city of Lahore, citing "specific threats" amid a worldwide alert over al Qaeda intercepts.
(Arif Ali / AFP - Getty Images)
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A young boy carries the body of a child outside a hospital in Quetta on Aug. 9, following an attack by gunmen on a mosque. Gunmen killed nine people and wounded 10 others when they opened fire outside a Sunni Muslim mosque on the outskirts of Pakistan's southwestern city of Quetta.
(Banaras Khan / AFP - Getty Images)
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Mourners gather at the site of a suicide bomb attack in Quetta on Aug. 8, following a suicide attack that killed at least 29 people and wounded more than 62 others at the funeral of a Pakistani police officer. The attack at police headquarters in the southwestern city of Quetta was the latest in a series of recent attacks underscoring rampant insecurity since a new government took office.
(Banaras Khan / AFP - Getty Images)
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Residents investigate damage caused by a bomb explosion in Karachi,, Aug. 7. The blast appeared to target a provincial government minister and killed 11 people, mostly teenagers playing street soccer, in a crowded market in southern Pakistan.
(Shakil Adil / AP)
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Activists of the Delhi Pradesh Youth Congress clash with police during a protest against Pakistan near the Pakistan Embassy in New Delhi, India on Aug. 7. Two Pakistani soldiers were wounded in an exchange of fire with Indian troops along the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir in the latest flare-up of tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbors.
(Adnan Abidi / Reuters)
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Pakistani men cross a flooded street during heavy monsoon rain in Quetta on Aug. 6. Monsoon rain and floods have killed at least 58 people across Pakistan and affected tens of thousands with more rain to come.
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A judge, along with his judicial staff, hear the first case in the Mobile Court in Peshawar. The buses have been launched to provide speedy and inexpensive justice to people in remote parts of Pakistan.
(NBC News)
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A plainclothes police officer takes a photo with his mobile phone of a damaged jail gate following a Taliban attack July 30, in Dera Ismail Khan. Dozens of Taliban militants armed with guns, grenades and bombs attacked a prison in northwest Pakistan, freeing more than 250 prisoners, including 25 "dangerous terrorists."
(Ishtiaq Mahsud / AP)
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Pakistani television show host Aamir Liaqat Hussain, right, speaks with Surayya Bilqees after she adopted daughter Zainab at an Islamic quiz show for Ramadan in Karachi, July 21. A charismatic Muslim preacher Aamir Liaqat Hussain has been criticized for giving out babies to childless couples live on prime-time television. Hussain denies he is fighting a ratings war and insists he is spreading charity, while he mesmerises his audience with celebrity interviews, game shows, by providing in-studio meals to the needy -- and, in two consecutive weeks, handing out baby girls to childless couples.
(GEO TV via AFP - Getty Images)
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Pakistani Shiite Muslims shout slogans at a protest against the shelling of the Syrian mausoleum of Sayyida Zeinab, granddaughter of the Prophet Mohammed, in Lahore on July 21. Rallies and protests were held in several cities of Pakistan against the attack on the shrine in Damascus.
(Arif Ali / AFP - Getty Images)
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A boy waits with others before participating in a mass "iftar," the evening meal breaking their daily fast, during the month of Ramadan on the outskirts of Islamabad July 15.
(Faisal Mahmood / Reuters)
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Malala Yousafzai is introduced before her first speech since the Taliban in Pakistan tried to kill her for advocating education for girls, at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, July 12. Wearing a pink head scarf, Yousafzai told U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and nearly 1,000 students from around the world attending a Youth Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York that education was the only way to improve lives.
(Brendan Mcdermid / Reuters)
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A woman injured in a bomb blast, mourns over the body of her daughter who died in the explosion, at their home in Lahore, July 07. A powerful bomb exploded at a busy market street in eastern Pakistan, killing at least four people and wounding 47.
(K.m. Chaudary / AP)
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The mangled wreckage of a motorcycle rickshaw lies on the ground after a train collided with the vehicle in Khanpur town of district Sheikhupura, northwest of Lahore on July 6. At least 14 people, including two children, were killed when a train collided with a packed motorcycle rickshaw in eastern Punjab province.
(Arif Ali / AFP - Getty Images)
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Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif chats with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, right, during a welcome ceremony outside the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, July 5.
(Jason Lee / Reuters)
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People survey the site of a suicide bomb attack the took place the previous day, targeting Shiite Muslims in restive Quetta, July 1. At least 50 people were killed and more than 100 wounded in a string of attacks across Pakistan against security forces and the minority Shiite community in the bloodiest day since a new government took over in early June.
(Musa Farman / EPA)
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Displaced people sit on vehicles loaded with belongings as they head back to their villages at Parachamkani, an area of Pakistan's Kurrum tribal region along Afghan border, June 29. Thousands of people who fled their homes due to fighting between Pakistani security forces and militants have returned to their villages after security forces cleared the areas from militants.
(Mohammad Sajjad / AP)
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A busy street in Karachi on June 29 at night. The nation's biggest electricity company was privatized, its headquarters have been looted, its employees kidnapped and the government tried to arrest the boss. Power cuts lasting 12 hours a day or more have devastated Pakistan's economy. The only city bucking the trend is Karachi, Pakistan's financial heart - thanks to Tabish Gauhar and his team at the Karachi Electricity Supply Company.
(Akhtar Soomro / Reuters)
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Pakistani Martial Arts students perform during an event to mark International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, at a public park in Islamabad, June 26.
(Muhammed Muheisen / AP)
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The father of a Pakistani policeman, who was killed in a bomb blast, mourns next to the body of his son at a hospital in Karachi, June 26. A bomb targeting a senior judge in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi wounded him and killed several security personnel.
(Shakil Adil / AP)
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Pakistani workers of political party Muttahida Qaumi Movement 'MQM,' light candles on June 23 during a protest to condemn the killing of foreign tourists by militants, in Karachi. Islamic militants wearing police uniforms shot to death nine foreign tourists and their Pakistani guide before dawn as they were visiting one of the world's highest mountains in a remote area of northern Pakistan that has been largely peaceful.
(Fareed Khan / AP)
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Volunteers plant mangrove trees, in an attempt to meet the target of planting 750,000 saplings in one day near the Arabian sea in Kharo Chhaan, 139 miles south of Karachi, June 22.
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Relatives and supporters of Mutahida Quami Movement (MQM) attend the funeral of their party lawmaker and his son in Karachi, June 22. Lawmaker Mohammed Sajid Qureshi, a member of MQM and the Provincial Assembly, and his son were killed by unknown gunmen after attending Friday prayers. Karachi, a city of more than 18 million people and country's financial hub has seen a spike in ethnic-, sectarian- and political-related violence in recent months that has claimed hundreds of lives.
(Shahzaib Akber / EPA)
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Pakistani girls attend class at a school in Mingora, the main town of Swat valley, June 21. where the Pakistani Taliban shot Malala Yousafzai in the head for advocating for education for girls.
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Editor's note:
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A man inspects a dead victim lying on the ground following a suicide attack on a Shiite Muslim mosque in Peshawar on June 21. A suicide attack killed 15 people and wounded more than 25 others at a Shiite Muslim mosque and religious seminary on the edge of Pakistan's northwestern city of Peshawar. According to Human Rights Watch, more than 400 Shias were killed in Pakistan in 2012, the deadliest year on record for the Shia Muslim community.
(Hasham Ahmed / AFP - Getty Images)
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During a power outtage in Rawalpindi, Pakistanis gather outside to escape the heat trapped in their homes, including a street barber who gives a customer a haircut, June 14.
(Muhammed Muheisen / AP)
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Water cannons hit protesters as Pakistani police try to disperse teachers protesting the lack of payment of their salaries for several months, as the budget is being presented in the provincial assembly in Karachi, June 17.
(Shahzaib Akber / EPA)
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A security official inspects the Boland Medical Complex a day after a gunbattle with suicide bombers, in Quetta, June 16. Pakistan forces retook control of the hospital from Islamic militants as at least 24 people, including four rebels, were killed and a historic building destroyed in attacks in Balochistan province.
(Waheed Khan / EPA)
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Ayesha Farooq, 26, Pakistan's only female war-ready fighter pilot, climbs up to a Chinese-made F-7PG fighter jet at Mushaf base in Sargodha, June 6. Farooq is one of 19 women who have become pilots in the Pakistan Air Force over the last decade - there are five other female fighter pilots, but they have yet to take the final tests to qualify for combat. A growing number of women have joined Pakistan's defence forces in recent years as attitudes toward women change.
(Zohra Bensemra / Reuters)
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Pakistani security officials inspect trucks carrying NATO vehicles which were attacked near the Afghan border in Khyber, Pakistan, June 10. More than a dozen attackers armed with rocket-propelled grenades attacked, torching the vehicles and killing six drivers.
(Wali Khan Shinwari / EPA)
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Pakistan's newly-elected Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, right, receives flowers from Asifa Bhutto, daughter of Benazir Bhutto at the Presidential Palace after taking the oath of prime minister in Islamabad, June 5. Sharif officially returned to power, vowing to fix the country's ailing economy, end electricity blackouts and called for an end to American drone strikes in the tribal areas. Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari is on the left.

Muzamil Shah holds a picture of his son Mohammed, 21, who went missing, while waiting outside the Supreme Court in Islamabad on June 5, hoping to meet newly elected Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
(Muhammed Muheisen / AP)
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Pakistani protesters burn a representation of a U.S. flag to condemn a drone attack in the Pakistani tribal area of Waziristan which killed Taliban leader Waliur Rehman May 30, in Multan. The Pakistani Taliban's deputy leader was buried hours after he was killed in a U.S. drone strike.
(M. Abbass / AP)
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People comfort a family member of a female polio worker who was killed by unknown gunmen, at a local hospital in Peshawar, May 28. Police say gunmen in Pakistan have shot dead a female polio worker and wounded another in the northwest.
(Mohammad Sajjad / AP)
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Relatives of one of seventeen children who died after a gas cylinder exploded on a school bus, mourn over his coffin, on the outskirts of Gujrat, 100 miles southeast of Islamabad, May 25. Seventeen Pakistani children were burnt to death when a gas cylinder on the bus taking them to school exploded.
(Faisal Mahmood / Reuters)
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Pakistani security officials inspect the site of a bomb attack on a vehicle used by security forces on the outskirts of Quetta, May 23. A bomb planted in a rickshaw tore through a vehicle used by security forces in southwest Pakistan on May 23, killing at least 12 people.
(Banaras Khan / AFP - Getty Images)
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Pakistan's incoming prime minister Nawaz Sharif, center, offers a table full of food to journalists after a press conference at his farmhouse in Raiwind on the outskirts of Lahore on May 13, 2013. Sharif said that he would be "very happy" to invite India's Manmohan Singh to his swearing-in ceremony.
(Roberto Schmidt / AFP - Getty Images)
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A supporter of Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party protests against alleged vote-rigging in some polling stations during the general election, in Islamabad on May 13.
(Zohra Bensemra / Reuters)
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Security personnel gather at the site of an overnight suicide bombing in Quetta on May 13. The police chief of Pakistan's restive southwestern province of Baluchistan narrowly escaped a suicide attack that killed at least six people and wounded 46 others, officials said.
(Banaras Khan / AFP - Getty Images)
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A man distributes sweets to supporters of Nawaz Sharif as they stand in front of one his homes in Lahore on May 12. Sharif was in talks Sunday to form a new government, with fixing the shattered economy and tackling Islamist militancy likely to be his two biggest challenges.
(Roberto Schmidt / AFP - Getty Images)
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Supporters of Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) celebrate election results late on May 11, in Lahore, Pakistan. Millions of Pakistanis cast votes in a parliamentary election Saturday. For the first time in the country's history, an elected government will hand over power to another elected government.
(Daniel Berehulak / Getty Images)
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Pakistani prime minister hopeful Imran Khan speaks from a hospital bed in Lahore where he is recovering from a fractured spine on Sunday. Khan welcomed the high voter turnout in the country's elections, but said his party would submit a report on alleged vote-rigging.
(Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf / AFP - Getty Images)
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Supporters of the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) watch election news on a television screen at the party's election headquarters in Lahore on Saturday, May 11.
(Damir Sagolj / Reuters)
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People gather near a polling station in a village near Lahore, Pakistan, on May 11. A string of militant attacks cast a long shadow over Pakistan's general election on Saturday, but millions still turned out to vote in a landmark test of the troubled country's democracy.
(Damir Sagolj / Reuters)
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Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, former prime minister of Pakistan ruling party Pakistan People Party (PPP), talks with journalists after casting his ballot in Gujar Khan, Pakistan, May 11.
(Md Nadeem / EPA)
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A Pakistani supporter of former cricket star-turned-politician, and leader of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, Imran Khan, talks with another person from his car, decorated with pictures bearing the image of Khan, in Islamabad, Pakistan, May 10.
(Muhammed Muheisen / AP)
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An election campaign office of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) that was destroyed by a bomb blast in Quetta on May 10. Pakistan is scheduled to hold parliamentary elections on May 11, the first transition between democratically elected governments in a country that has experienced three military coups and constant political instability since its creation in 1947. The parliament's ability to complete its five-year term has been hailed as a significant achievement.
(Arshad Butt / AP)
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Pakistan's former Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, center, receives visitors on May 10 to console him over his son's abduction the previous day. Gunmen attacked an election rally in Pakistan's southern Punjab province on Thursday and abducted Ali Haider Gilani, intensifying what has already been a violent run-up to the election.
(Zeeshan Hassan / AP)
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A man sits on the window of a burning building in central Lahore on May 9. Fire erupted on the seventh floor of the LDA plaza in Lahore and quickly spread to higher floors leaving many people trapped inside the building. At least three people fell from the high floors trying to avoid fire that engulfed the building, local media reported.
(Damir Sagolj / Reuters)
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Supporters leaning on a fence listen to former prime minister Nawaz Sharif speaking at a campaign closing rally in Lahore on May 9. Sharif, the frontrunner in Pakistan's election campaign, gave an impassioned final speech to thousands of supporters, promising to change the country's course if elected.
(Arif Ali / AFP - Getty Images)
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Former Prime Minister and head of Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) Nawaz Sharif speaks to supporters during an election campaign in Liaquat Bagh on May 7.
(T. Mughal / EPA)
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Suffering with head injuries, Pakistani politician and former cricketer Imran Khan is carried by rescuers as they rush to the hospital in Lahore on May 7, after he fell off a lift taking him onto the stage for an election rally. The dramatic development came at the end of a day that saw 17 people killed and dozens more wounded in bomb attacks in northwest Pakistan, taking the death toll in the bloody campaign for the general election past 100.
(Arif Ali / AFP - Getty Images)
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A supporter ties a party ribbon onto the arm of Imran Khan, chairman of the Pakistan Tehrik e Insaf (PTI) party, during an election campaign rally in Multan on May 6.
(Daniel Berehulak / Getty Images)
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A man who was injured in a bomb blast that targeted an election campaign rally of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazal (JUI-F), in Kurram tribal agency, receives medical treatment in Peshawar on May 6. At least fifteen people were killed and dozens wounded in a bomb blast at an election rally of a religious party in Pakistan's troubled north-western tribal region, officials said.
(Arshad Arbab / EPA)
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Pakistani workers carry ballot boxes and electoral materials on May 6 in Karachi to be transported to polling stations for the forthcoming parliamentary elections. Pakistan will elect a new government to serve for the next five years in polls on May 11. The election of the national and four provincial assemblies will mark the first time a civilian government has completed a full term and handed over to another, in a country that has been ruled by the military for half its existence.
(Asif Hassan / AFP - Getty Images)
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Pakistani prisoner Sanaullah Ranjay, an inmate of India's central Jammu jail who was attacked by Indian prisoners, is carried from a hospital to an ambulance in Jammu before being transferred to a hospital in Chandigarh for treatment on May 3. Ranjay died on May 9, hospital officials told AFP. He suffered massive head injuries in an apparent tit-for-tat attack after an Indian prisoner, Sarabjit Singh, was fatally assaulted in Pakistan.
(AFP - Getty Images)
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Family members of a Pakistani politician mourn his death in Karachi on May 3. Gunmen riding a motorcycle shot to death Sadiq Zaman Khattak, who was running for parliament from the Awami National Party, and his 6-year-old son. Violent attacks against political parties and candidates has marred the upcoming election.
(Shakil Adil / AP)
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A Pakistani boy cries after receiving the measles vaccine by a volunteer of Jamaat-ud-Dawwa in Lahore, May 3. According to the health department, the number of measles cases in Punjab province reached 7,794 since January.
(K.M. Chaudary / AP)
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Family members and relatives of slain Pakistani prosecutor Chaudhry Zulfikar sit with his body inside an ambulance at a morgue in Islamabad, May 3. Gunmen killed Pakistan's lead prosecutor investigating the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto as he drove to court in the capital on Friday, throwing the case that also involves former ruler Pervez Musharraf into disarray.
(Anjum Naveed / AP)
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Pakistani hospital staff transfer the body of jailed Indian spy Sarabjit Singh after an autopsy at a local hospital in Lahore, May 2. Indians expressed outrage at the Pakistan government over the death of a convicted Indian spy who had been attacked with a brick by two fellow inmates in a Pakistan prison, a development New Delhi said has damaged relations between the longtime rival nations.
(K.M Chaudary / AP)
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A Pakistani policeman stands guard near a gate in the Old City as banners of Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif, both leaders of political party Pakistan Muslim League-N (PMLN) are displayed on a street in Lahore on May 1.
(Daniel Berehulak / Getty Images)
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A Pakistani Christian woman peering out from inside a church as angry fellow Christians protest the beating of a young man from the Joseph Colony, a Christian neighborhood in Lahore, on April 30. Christians are part of the four percent of Pakistanis who belong to minority religions.
(Anja Niedringhaus / AP)
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Members of a brass band perform in front of an election rally of the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) political party in Rawalpindi April 30.
(Mian Khursheed / Reuters)
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Pakistani security officials, journalists and local residents gather at the site of a bomb explosion in Karachi on April 27. Three bomb explosions killed two people including a young girl, in the latest violence ahead of polls next month. The blasts, two of which targeted secular political parties and another close to a Shiite mosque, came a day after a car bomb at a political meeting in the same city killed at least 10 people.
(Asif Hassan / AFP - Getty Images)
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A Pakistani motorcyclist crosses a flooded street following heavy rain in Peshawar on April 26. Pakistan has suffered devastating monsoon floods for the last three years, including the worst in its history in 2010 when catastrophic inundations killed almost 1,800 people and affected 21 million.
(A. Majeed / AFP - Getty Images)
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U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, center, talks with Pakistani Army Chief Gen. Asfhaq Parvez Kayani and members of his delegation during a meeting break on April 24, in Brussels, Belgium. The trilateral meeting is to discuss regional security issues, and the 2014 withdrawal of NATO combat forces from Afghanistan.
(Evan Vucci / AP)
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Pakistani paramilitary troops stand guard as lawyers chant anti-Pervez Musharraf slogans outside an anti-terrorism court, where the former president and military ruler appeared in Islamabad, April 20. Musharraf, who ruled Pakistan for nearly a decade before being forced to step down, appeared in front of the court in connection with charges linked to his 2007 sacking and detention of a number of judges.
(Anjum Naveed / AP)
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Former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf, center, is escorted by soldiers and police commandos as he leaves the anti-terrorism court after a hearing in Islamabad, April 20. Musharraf appeared before an anti-terrorism court after spending the night at police headquarters, following his arrest.
(Aamir Qureshi / AFP - Getty Images)
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An earthquake survivor walks on the rubble of a mud house after it collapsed in the town of Mashkeel, southwestern Pakistani province of Baluchistan, near the Iranian border on April 17. A powerful earthquake struck a border area of southeast Iran, killing at least 35 people in neighboring Pakistan and destroying hundreds of houses and shaking buildings as far away as India and Gulf Arab states.
(Reuters)
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People run past a burning car after a suicide attack in Peshawar, April 16. A suicide bomber targeted members of an anti-Taliban political party in northwestern Pakistan.
(Nasir Khan / AP)
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Pakistani rescue workers carry Masoom Shah, center, a local leader of Awami National Party who was injured in a bombing during his election campaign, in Peshawar, April 14. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, though the ANP is among a group of parties facing threats from the Pakistani Taliban, apparently for being vocal against the insurgency. Since April, the Taliban has killed more than 90 people in attacks on three major political parties, preventing many of their most prominent candidates from openly campaigning.
(Bilawal Arbab / EPA)
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A man who was injured in a bomb explosion is rushed to a local hospital for medical treatment in Peshawar, April 13. An explosion tore through a commuter van in Peshawar, killing at least nine people and injuring 16 others.
(Arshad Arbab / EPA)
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A day laborer, Wakeel Mohammed, 38, sits on a roadside with his daughter Halimah, 1, on his lap and his relative Khadijah, 7, right, in a poor neighborhood on the outskirts of Islamabad, April 11. Wakeel and his family fled Pakistan's tribal region of Mohmand Agency due to fighting between the Taliban and the army and took refuge in Islamabad.
(Muhammed Muheisen / AP)
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Model Nadia Hussain applies make-up on her shoulder as she prepares to take to the catwalk on the last day of the Fashion Pakistan Week in Karachi on April 10.
(Insiya Syed / Reuters)
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Pakistani schoolgirls attend a karate class at Shotokan Karate School in Islamabad, April 8. Wonder Woman and Supergirl now have a Pakistani counterpart in the pantheon of female superheroes -- one who shows a lot less skin. Meet Burka Avenger: a mild-mannered teacher with secret martial arts skills who uses a flowing black burka to hide her identity as she fights local thugs seeking to shut down the girls' school where she works. Sadly, it's a battle Pakistanis are all too familiar with in the real world.
(Muhammed Muheisen / AP)
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A man looks at the destroyed electricity power plant following an attack by gunmen in Badh Bher, a suburb of Peshawar on April 2. Dozens of gunmen attacked an electricity plant in northwest Pakistan, killing seven people and disrupting power to 100,000 people.
(AFP - Getty Images)
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Badam Zari, right, a woman from Bajaur tribal agency near the Afghan border, talks with journalists about contesting general elections from Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), in Bajauar, April 1. Zari is the first woman to run for office from the tribal areas where conservatives do not allow women to cast ballots due to traditional veiling customs. Pakistan's May 11 elections will mark the first-ever transition from one elected civilian government to another in the country’s 65-year history.
(Hanifullah Khan / EPA)
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Pakistani female doctors help a disabled child at a rehabilitation center at the Dow Medical Institute for Health in Karachi, March 30. In a country better known for honor killings of women and low literacy rates for girls, Pakistan’s medical schools are a reflection of how women’s roles are evolving. Women now make up the vast majority of students studying medicine, a gradual change that’s come about after a quota favoring male admittance into medical school was lifted in 1991.
(Fareed Khan / AP)
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Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman, leader of Islamic political party Jamiat Ulma-e-Islam speaks to supporters as Pakistan gears up for general elections, during a rally in Lahore, March 31.
(Rahat Dar / EPA)
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Former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf is greeted by supporters after landing on Pakistani soil at Jinnah International airport on March 24, in Karachi. The former president and military ruler returned to Pakistan after 4 years of self-imposed exile to participate in historic elections in May. Mr. Musharraf has been granted protective bail in several cases, including conspiracy to murder which has paved his way allowing for his return amidst threats from the Taliban.
(Daniel Berehulak / Getty Images)
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An image from a video released by the Tehrik-e-Taliban in Pakistan to journalists, shows Adnan Rashid, center, who fled a prison from a death row for his conviction in an assasination attempt on former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, surrounded by militants at an undisclosed location near the Pak-Afghan border March 24. "The mujahedeen of Islam have prepared a death squad to send Pervez Musharraf to hell," said Rashid in the video.
Living in exile since 2009, Musharraf has downplayed an assassination threat by Taliban.
(Dsk / EPA)
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People comfort the relative of a victim of a bomb blast targeting a camp for internally displaced people, at a local hospital in Peshawar, March 21. At least four people were killed in a bomb attack at a camp where hundreds of people displaced by fighting with Islamist rebels in the region are living.
(Arshad Arbab / EPA)
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A man watching stars on a rooftop near the Chanan Pir shrine during annual festival in Chanan Pir, March 14. The Channan Pir is a 600-year-old shrine of a Muslim saint that lies in Cholistan Desert between Derawer and Din Garh Fort, a few kilometers from Yazman.
(Rahat Dar / EPA)
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A Pakistani man walks past billboards showing from right, Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf , Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, and President Asif Ali Zardari, in Islamabad, March 18. Morsi arrived in Pakistan on March 18, on a South Asian tour that will also take in India as he works to promote trade and investment in his nation's troubled economy. Morsi's one-day trip to Pakistan is the first by an Egyptian leader since Gamal Abdel Nasser in the 1960s, Pakistan's foreign ministry said. President Zardari urged the Egyptian president to help resolve the crisis in Syria
(Muhammed Muheisen / AP)
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Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, center, talks on a hand-held radio to order the official start of construction on a pipeline to transfer natural gas from Iran to Pakistan, as his Pakistani counterpart President Asif Ali Zardari, center right, looks on, in Chabahar, southeastern Iran, near the Pakistani border, March 11, 2013. The leaders of Pakistan and Iran pushed ahead with a pipeline to bring natural gas from Iran despite American opposition, with the Iranian president saying the West has no right to block the project. Former Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani stands at left.
(Vahid Salemi / AP)
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Azra, 68, looks at her dead pet bird at her home, which was burnt by a mob two days earlier, in Badami Bagh, Lahore, March 11, 2013. Hundreds of Pakistani Christians took to the streets across the country, demanding better protection after a Christian neighborhood in Lahore was torched in connection with the country's controversial anti-blasphemy law.
(Mohsin Raza / Reuters)
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Pakistani Christians raise their hands during a demonstration in Lahore, March 10. Hundreds of Christians protesting the burning of their homes by a Muslim mob over alleged blasphemous remarks made against the Islam's Prophet Muhammad clashed with police in eastern and southern Pakistan.
(K.M. Chaudary / AP)
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A wounded man is carried to a nearby hospital following a bomb blast in Peshawar, March 9. At least six people were killed and dozens injured when a bomb exploded at a mosque in a congested commercial neighborhood during midday prayers.
(Arshad Arbab / EPA)
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Shiite Muslims carry bodies during a funeral for those killed in a bomb attack, a day earlier, in Karachi, March 4. A suspected suicide bomber attacked Shiite Muslims as they were leaving a mosque in Pakistan's commercial capital, March 3, killing at least 45 people in another signal Sunni militants are escalating sectarian attacks.
(Athar Hussain / Reuters)
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Firefighters spray water to control a fire in a building after a bomb blast in a residential area in Karachi March 3. A bomb attack in a Shiite Muslim area of Pakistan's commercial capital Karachi killed 25 people and wounding dozens more.
(Akhtar Soomro / Reuters)
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Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, center, welcomes his Pakistani counterpart, Asif Ali Zardari, in Tehran, Iran, Feb. 27. Zardari is visiting Tehran where he is expected to finalize a gas pipeline deal with Iran that is being opposed by the United States.
(Vahid Salemi / AP)
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Pakistani Kushti wrestlers warm up before attending their daily training session, at a wrestling club in Lahore, Feb. 26. Kushti, an Indo-Pakistani form of wrestling, is several thousand years old and is a national sport in Pakistan.
(Muhammed Muheisen / AP)
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Relatives of bombing victims sit beside bodies for a third day, refusing to bury them until their demands are met, on Feb. 19. Pakistan's Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf ordered a targeted operation in the provincial capital of Quetta after at least 89 Shiites died in a weekend bombing, the second deadly attack there against the minority Muslim denomination in as many months. Banned Sunni extremist group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi claimed responsibility for both the weekend attack and one in January when twin blasts killed at least 86 people.
(Yasir Khan / EPA)
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A military official hands over a Pakistan military cap, stick and national flag to the father of Pakistani soldier Muhammad Akhlaq, killed by Indian soldiers while crossing into the Indian side of Kashmir at a post on the Line of Control (LoC) in the disputed region of Kashmir, after his burial in Rawalpindi, Feb. 16. Tension remains high a month after the worst outbreak of violence in years in the disputed region.
(Sohail Shahzad / Reuters)
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A supporter of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa shouts slogans during an anti-India demonstration to condemn the hanging of Mohammad Afzal Guru, in Rawalpindi, Feb. 10. India hanged the Kashmiri militant for an attack on the country's parliament in 2001, sparking clashes in Kashmir between hundreds of protesters and police who wielded batons and fired teargas to disperse the crowds. India's President Pranab Mukherjee rejected a mercy petition from Guru and he was hanged at in Tihar jail in the capital, New Delhi.
(Mian Khursheed / Reuters)
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Aurangzeb Farooqi, center, leader of Ahl-i-Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ), arrives to attend the meeting of religious teachers and scholars in Karachi, Feb. 6. Foorqi survived a assassination attempt on Dec. 25, 2012 after which he made a chilling speech to his followers, saying, "I will make Sunnis so powerful against Shiites that no Sunni will even want to shake hands with a Shiite. They will die their own deaths; we won't have to kill them."
(Athar Hussain / Reuters)
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Pakistani soldiers carry the flag-draped caskets of their colleagues killed in an attack by militants during their funeral ceremony in Bannu, Feb. 2. Taliban militants attacked an isolated army checkpoint in Pakistan's restive northwest on Saturday, with at least 31 people killed in the initial assault, subsequent crossfire and a rocket attack.
(Zahid Mohammad / Reuters)
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A man who was injured during a suicide bomb attack in the northwestern town of Hangu receives treatment at Peshawar's hospital, Feb. 1. A suicide bomber killed 22 people in a crowded market outside two mosques from separate Muslim sects in Pakistan's restive northwest. Two of the dead were policemen.
(Fayaz Aziz / Reuters)
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Pakistani schoolgirls, who were displaced with their families from Pakistan's tribal areas due to fighting between militants and the army, listen to their teacher as a health worker visits their school to give them polio vaccines, in a poor neighborhood on the outskirts of Islamabad, Jan. 31. Two Pakistani polio workers on their way to vaccinate children in a northwestern tribal region near the Afghan border were killed by a roadside bomb the same day.
(Muhammed Muheisen / AP)
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A girl from an underprivileged background learns to use a computer at Mashal School on the outskirts of Islamabad, Jan. 24. Pakistani street children who once had to wash cars or scavenge now study at the school, a non-profit organization which serves over 400 children.
(Zohra Bensemra / Reuters)
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People attend the funeral, on Jan. 18, of Pakistani lawmaker Manzar Imam who was killed with his three bodyguards. Unknown gunmen on motorbikes killed Imam, a Shia member of the political party Muttahida Qaumi Movement, and his guards the day before.
(Fareed Khan / AP)
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Female supporters of Tahir-ul Qadri stand guard to protect sleeping women taking part in the fourth day of protests in Islamabad, Jan. 17. Pakistan's president intervened to stop authorities from using force against protesters who are calling for parliament to be dissolved in Islamabad's largest political rally in years.
(Asif Hassan / AFP - Getty Images)
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Pakistani villagers comfort a man mourning over the death of a family member, outside the governor's house in Peshawar, Pakistan, on Jan. 16. Hundreds of villagers from northwest Pakistan protested the killing of 18 of their relatives in an overnight raid that they blamed on security forces, displaying the bodies of the victims in the provincial capital.
(Mohammad Sajjad / AP)
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Supporters of Tahirul Qadri, a prominent religious scholar who recently returned to Pakistan from Canada, listen to his speech during in a sit-in protest in Islamabad, Jan. 15. Thousands joined Tahirul Qadri in a march from the eastern city of Lahore on Jan. 13 and reached Islamabad two days later to demand political reforms. The Supreme Court ordered the detention of Pakistan's Prime Minister, Raja Pervez Ashraf, and others accused of corruption.
(T. Mughal / EPA)
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Tahirul Qadri, a Pakistani religious leader, arrives at a protest march in Islamabad Jan. 15, along with tens of thousands of protesters. Qadri is calling for authorities to implement election reforms ahead of a parliamentary vote which should be held within 60 days after the term of the current assembly expires in March, but is accused of trying to sow political chaos ahead of elections.
(Farooq Naeem / AFP - Getty Images)
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Shiite Muslims sit by the bodies of the victims of twin bombings for the third day, during a protest in Quetta, Jan. 14. Pakistani Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf dismissed his party's government in the south-western province of Balochistan, clearing the way for Shiite Muslims hit by a deadly attack last week to bury their dead. Thousands of members of the minority sect had been staging a sit-in among dozens of shroud-covered bodies in the provincial capital Quetta since Jan. 11, to protest twin bombings that killed more than 84 people, mostly Shiites from ethnic Hazara community.
(Waheed Khan / EPA)
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Journalists from the Baluchistan Union of Journalists hold a photograph of their colleague Imran Sheikh, who was killed in an explosion the day before, during a silent protest against bomb blasts and to condemn the killing of members of the media, outside the press club in Quetta on Jan. 11.
(Naseer Ahmed / Reuters)
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People gather around the bodies of relatives who were killed in twin bombings in Quetta, Baluchistan province, on Jan. 11. The death toll in multiple bombings rose to 120 with 230 injured, the deadliest single day for Pakistan in five years. A journalist from the local Samaa television channel, as well as several police and rescue officials, were among the dead. Quetta and other parts of Baluchistan have been restive for several years, but attacks on security forces and Shiites - a minority Muslim sect in Pakistan - have increased in recent months.
(Musa Farman / EPA)
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A paramilitary soldier reacts as he asks civilians to leave the scene of a bomb explosion in Quetta, Jan. 10. Dozens were killed and hundreds more injured in twin blasts that took place at a billards hall.
(Naseer Ahmed / Reuters)
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Pakistani soldiers lay a wreath on the grave of Muhammad Aslam, a soldier whom the Pakistan military said was killed by Indian soldiers during an attack at a Pakistani checkpost on the Line of Control (LoC) near Hajpir in the disputed region of Kashmir, Jan. 8. A gunfight between Indian and Pakistani troops in Kashmir could heighten tensions between the nuclear neighbors. India denies that its troops crossed over the line during the incident and accused Pakistan of "barbaric and inhuman" behavior for killing and mutilating the bodies of two Indian solders after a previous firefight.
(Stringer / Reuters)
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A man looks through broken glass on the Jaffar Express train after an attack at a railway station in Quetta on Jan. 6. Unidentified gunmen fired at a train in Baluchistan province, killing at least five people and seriously injuring 20 others.
(Banaras Khan / AFP - Getty Images)
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Pakistani schoolgirls who were displaced from Pakistan's tribal areas due to fighting between militants and the army, chant prayers at a school on the outskirts of Islamabad on Jan. 3 for five female teachers and two aid workers who were killed by gunmen. Gunmen killed the teachers and aid workers in an ambush on a van carrying workers home from their jobs at a community center on Jan. 1.
(Muhammed Muheisen / AP)
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An injured man receives treatment at a hospital in Karachi, Jan. 1, 2013. A bomb exploded in a crowded area of the southern port city, killing at least one person and wounding 21.
(Athar Hussain / Reuters)
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Editor's note:
This image contains graphic content that some viewers may find disturbing.